418 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



pair nested in a garden in the city of Durham in 1845, and that 

 the nest and one of the eggs passed into his possession. Nothing 

 is said here as to whether the eggs were authenticated in any 

 way, but the late Canon Tristram, writing sixty years after the 

 event, gives some additional particulars. The nest is said to 

 have been built ' on a cherry tree trained on a wall ' — an unusual 

 site for a bird which nests in holes ; and the birds are also stated 

 to have been shot : the male being in the Durham Museum. 

 (' Victoria History of the County of Durham,' I, p. 178.) If these 

 additional particulars, written after so long an interval, can be 

 trusted, and the male in the Durham Museum can be traced 

 and shown to be the bird in question, this case may be said to 

 be substantiated. It is curious, however that no mention is made 

 of it by Professor Newton in the fourth edition of ' Yarrell,' as it 

 certainly seems to have rather better claims to recognition than 

 any of the others. It must, however, be remembered that 

 Durham is considerably further north than any known breeding 

 place of this species, and that its occurrences as a passage 

 migrant are extremely few. Mr. A. G. More (' Ibis,' 1865, p. 22) 

 says that Mr. J. Tracy includes it in his list as having nested 

 in Pembrokeshire, but on referring to Mr. Tracy's paper 

 ('Zoologist' 1850, p. 2641) I find it recorded as a 'very rare' 

 autumn visitor, of which two occurrences only are noted. 



On May 8th, 1852, two boys, while birds-nesting at Longdon,* 

 near Eugeley, Staffs., found a nest in a heap of thorns lying near 

 a hedge, containing four white eggs, which they took to Mr. E. 

 W. Hawkins In this case the parents were not identified in 

 any way, but from the appearance of the eggs, Mr. Hawkins came 

 to the conclusion that they were probably Black Eedstart's. He 

 does not, however, assert this positively, but says " If not the 

 eggs of the Black Eedstart, what are they ? " The nest and an 

 egg were subsequently sent by Mr. Hawkins to the Eev. F. 0. 

 Morris, and were actually figured by him in his ' Natural History 

 of the Nest and Eggs of British Birds,' Part 26 (p. 53) as the 

 eggs of the Black Eedstart ! To anyone familiar with the nest- 

 ing-habits of this species the site described would alone be enough 



* Misprinted as ' Eongdon ' in the ' Zool.' 1852, p. 3503 : and also in the 

 fourth edition of ' Yariell ' I, p. 334 and the ' Ibis.' 1865, p. 21. This shows, 

 the necessity of correcting misprints in order to avoid repetition of error. 



